November Reflections...

November marries autumn and Thanksgiving; football and turkeys; pumpkin pie and people. The Hague and Augsburger clan stitch birthdays, Thanksgiving, black-Friday shopping and Christmas all into one. It’s the season of giving and going, rest and reprieve. And somehow we manage to craz-ify it, filling the holiday with acrobatics, baseball injuries and music, not to mention our staple hand-and-foot tournaments.

Last year these things changed. It’s the inevitable journeys end that comes to us whether we like it or not. The end always comes - hopefully birthing something that remembers and cherishes the past just as it embarks on its own new voyage. Last year, Aunt Erma and Jean left this life for another. My brother Samuel married two weeks later. These events were the get-togethers that marked our holiday, so it was, therefore, more tight-knit and sober filled with tears and laughter surrounding different memories: one final and one beginning.

I have been in Jerusalem two months this time around. School has just finished its term and students are trickling out catching their respective flights home. I have been leading tours for the OBI and am tending the JUC garden, this all falling under the priority to get my thesis done. Though my responsibilities keep me rather busy, I have taken time to arrest some of my holiday reflections and interface them with this estranged and lovely Jerusalem context; this to offer a few update-anecdotes and wish you a Merry Christmas.   

As you know, Jerusalem has never been free of drama. November’s included Gazian rockets and return fire, people coming and going, and now a mishap-pole incident. I am sure in a donkey-driven world more than one Jerusalemite has fallen off or, in my case, ran right into something hard and stable. I will be well, soon enough. Thanksgiving football has provided an extra measure of continued entertainment for those who have seen the video of my little accident.

Even more, conflict and sojourning seem to characterize Jerusalem from the time of Abraham and Melchizedek, Joshua and Adonizedek to the lives of Zerubbabel and the returnees during the Persian period through to Jesus and the Romans, and so on and so forth. Remember, history highlights happenings and conflict sells; so it may take a bit of added effort to gain a better sense of what is really going on. In any case, every age knew folks who journeyed ‘round like strangers in a foreign land and I feel as if I can identify.

The long drives and short stays have become a normal part of my narrative. Though I have found a temporary home here, soon enough it will be time to move on. So it’s actually quite a marvel that I have now spent over three years in Israel. Though I have moved from place to place, Israel has taken on a sense of familiarity - the people and places. For this I am becoming more and more thankful. 

Just last week, as I toured in the north I found that every site offered more perspective than my previous visits. Even walking ‘round Jerusalem, trekking with a colleague I found things I had not seen before and appreciated things that I had before resented whether it be Egyptian building features at the Garden tomb or the Jerusalem rain. Amazing what you see when your eyes are open or receptive.

This is summarized well in a parable told by David Foster Wallace. He tells a story about three fish. An older fish said in passing to two younger fish “How’s the water?” The younger fish were perplexed by the question because they had no ideal what water was. Wallace’s point is so obvious and perceptive. Their whole lives were inundated with a reality that they had never taken time to appreciate.

It is high time that we begin paying better attention to the life-situation in which we have been called to live. While I find it particularly remarkable that God has chosen to work with a bunch of boneheads i.e. Isaac, Samson and Peter, it seems to me that he energizes us to engage our generation - living in this world as bright lights thoroughly equipped for every good work. We must have answers that are Gospel-informed. Answers for how to engage with situations that are right in front of us, whether it be couple-drama or country-drama. Forgiveness is a power won by the Christ's cross. This after all is why Jesus came.

I do hope that your Christmas Holiday is filled with wonder and blessing. I hope, too, that this Advent season would awaken your numbness and quicken your spirit. 

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Seth